Girl On Film: Life Lately

The first time I went on film, I was hailed for my performance. I suspect this was in no small part because I was an excessively enthusiastic and really quite fat 10-year-old, and my starring role consisted of eating a schnitzel with gusto for a programme called Planet Nosh on a slot my dad was part of to promote Tiroler Hut. The producers LOVED it. I loved it. I even got paid a few pounds for the experience. It was delightful.

And then I saw the actual footage. I was standing next to my friends Jenna and Neda. We’d all dressed in our 90s finest, our lips coated in the frosted purple Spectacular lipstick that I’d convinced them was the only thing to be seen sporting, our hair lying limpy next to our faces. To my ten-year-old eye, they looked quite cool in their slips and chockers, a bit like extras from Clarissa Explains It All, while I looked… well, inflated. Seriously: I was monstrous, all purple lips greedily clapping around each mouthful of fried pork.

And so it was that at that tender age that I first realised the camera is a double-edged sword. If you’re naturally inclined to telling a yarn and don’t mind waffling on for a good few minutes uninterrupted like me, you’re likely to find being in front of it breezy. Enjoyable, even. A chance to air those vocal chords with a lovely adrenaline high on the side. Seeing yourself on it post, though – well, that’s a whole other matter.

The camera thing has, however, become integral to my job and I do it now fairly often – often enough for Marie Claire to have kindly popped me on the masthead as their Contributing Beauty Video Producer. And I’ve also now filmed two Facebook lives for them, too – one on organic/natural products, and another on spot-busting heroes – click on the links if you’d like to be redirected to them.

In other video news – BOAST ALERT – last week I was pleased as punch to rank as a runner up for my vlogging efforts: Best Emerging Vlogger at the 13th annual Johnson & Johnson Ltd Awards 2017, to be precise. While on the topic of vlogs, a huge thank you if you’ve been watching mine – I’m learning the tricks of that extremely technical trade as I go, so it’s a work in progress and I very much appreciate all the encouragement and views.

Final in this video bulletin: the heads up that there’ll soon be another Matalan The Show out with me, Denise and Billie Faiers having a little chat about Mother’s Day. I’ll post a link to it when it’s live. And, if you’re a very keen bean and love a video, head over to my instagram, where I’m posting many an instagram live story on the trials and tribulations of my current stay at the VIVAMAYR clinic. There’ll be no purple lipstick or schnitzels on there, that’s for sure.